Plum's Blog

Review: Feedme F9 Pro

Sun, 18 Oct 2026 13:34:00 +0800

Today’s Xinchuang story is a side chapter, about a laptop with another “domestic CPU.” By pure chance I got my hands on a machine running a Zhaoxin KX-6640MA, labeled as a Feedme F9 Pro. I bought it dirt cheap, and it even came standard with 16GB of RAM. Zhaoxin’s bad reputation precedes it, but you can’t tell a horse from a donkey without racing it — I had to feel this thing out myself.

Impressions: Lenovo Kaitian D11

Sat, 10 Oct 2026 13:56:00 +0800

I’ve talked before about Lenovo’s “Kaitian D10” tablet, which works as a dedicated Galgame machine. It’s great value for the price and totally fine at that price point, but there were still a few things about it that bugged me.

Performance is too weak, it can only run Win10
Screen colors are good, but still not good enough
The Secure Boot certificate expired, so it throws an error at boot

None of these are huge problems, but they’re still a bit annoying. Then, by pure coincidence, I saw someone on eBay selling the upgraded version of this thing: the “Kaitian D11”, codename IdeaPad Duet 3 11IAN8.

Ousama Renai (王様恋愛) Review

Wed, 07 Oct 2026 13:20:00 +0800

There was a time when Asa Project’s nickname in the Chinese community was “the face-meme studio,” thanks to those deranged expressions their characters pull. And the shameless gag romance plots, peaking with Renai 0 Kilometer.

But Asa Project themselves don’t seem happy with that reputation. After that came Kansetsu Renai and then everything afterward slowly dialed the “face memes” down — at first every heroine had them, then just one, and by now… you basically can’t find any. Personally I think Asa Project sees itself as a pure-love studio that expresses its stories through various definitions of “love.”

Every game they pick a new flavor of “love” and put it right there in the title — indirect love, two-timing love, triangle love, love rivalry, part-time-job love, side-character love… at this point I’m convinced they write “renai” in the title first and fill in the rest later.

After over a year, Asa Project is back with a new one: Ousama Renai (王様恋愛). The official blurb says the protagonist is a rich young heir who lives like a king every day, and the hook is “love initiated by the man.” At a glance it screams “domineering CEO sweeps me off my feet.” Then I finished the game and… no, that’s not what this is at all.

A Few Days with Arduboy

Wed, 30 Sep 2026 10:25:00 +0800

The Arduboy is an open-source, credit-card-sized handheld built on the Arduino platform. It’s all about that 8-bit era feel—roughly, you know, a step above those black-and-white LCD Tetris handhelds.

The project actually started as a way to promote Arduino, something Arduino fans cooked up themselves. It later hit Kickstarter, became a proper product, and turned into a geek toy. As more people bought it, they did a bunch of collabs and even put out an enhanced Arduboy FX with more preloaded games and USB-C link play…

It looks commercial, but the thing is fundamentally open source. You can buy an ATmega32u4 chip and, by mooching off companies like JLC, solder one together yourself. No need to buy the official version—especially since the official one has been out of stock and getting pricier lately.

Impressions: Mante GBA Cartridge Handheld

Fri, 25 Sep 2026 15:49:00 +0800

Happy Mid-Autumn, everyone 🎑!

This time I got my hands on a rather unusual handheld. The community calls it the “underwear machine,” because the thing is shaped like a pair of briefs.

What makes it special is that it takes actual GBA game cartridges, and the design is clearly a bit of a nod to the GBA.

It’s quite cheap — under 280 yuan. I don’t know what the processor is; probably a Rockchip. The OS is a heavily customized Linux. The biggest visual highlight is the front panel: a single piece of glass, and it looks genuinely nice.

Sadly, that’s where the good parts end.

Living with Trimui Smart

Wed, 23 Sep 2026 09:07:00 +0800

The Trimui Smart is a pretty unusual early handheld. Unlike the big “shanzhai” makers who lean on the open-source community to supply a “usable system,” Trimui has always built its own custom system, and it actually works well.

Most people know the later Trimui Smart Pro, the handheld that claims it can play PSP — though not comfortably — and whose real selling point is killer standby time (the perk of a custom system is deep optimization), plus the Trimui Brick that carried on the Smart Pro’s traits, and so on…

I’ve actually used both the Trimui Smart Pro and the Trimui Brick, and sold them later. Not because the system was bad — mainly because the build quality was so poor. Burrs everywhere, and the buttons are stiff as hell…

But today we’re not talking about those two. We’re talking about the Trimui Smart, the first product in the line.

A Few Days with Chengmai Loongson 3A6000 Laptop

Tue, 22 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0800

I once had a chance to be among the first people using a Loongson laptop, but I let it slip. Later, when Loongson was clearing out that batch of laptops on its official site for a mere 300 yuan, I didn’t bite either — and then that batch went up in price because it was the same model Stallman used. Kind of absurd. But given how RAM prices have shot up, upgrading a computer with a new machine is basically hopeless now, so I figured I’d mess around with Xinchuang and get ready for the day domestic hardware takes over my workplace. Maybe all these weird things I’m tinkering with now will be what I have to use at work. If I have to try it eventually, might as well try it early.

So a while back, with a friend’s help, I got my hands on a Loongson laptop — the kind with the most stock and the hottest demand on secondhand marketplaces right now. The machine is brand new: 3A6000 + 16G + 512G. The manufacturer is Chengmai, though the seller said, “They’re all made by Chengmai, I’ve got several brands stickered on the back here, which one do you want?” In the end I picked the one with a dragon on the back — at least it can be compared to Apple…

Impressions: HP Elite X3 Lapdock

Sat, 05 Sep 2026 22:03:00 +0800

A batch of HP docks showed up on eBay recently for 69 yuan with free shipping. Full name: Elite X3 Lapdock. It was originally made to pair with HP’s own Windows Phone handsets, but thanks to the well-known reasons, the Windows Phone market is completely dead, and this thing is now an awkward orphan nobody wants.

Like most people, I had fantasies about it too. Could this be a cheap TNT Go? So I grabbed one to find out.

Impressions: Dell Latitude 3340

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 17:00:00 +0800

Preface

Maybe you get old and start getting nostalgic. Lately everything new feels boring to me, and I’ve been missing the past. So I got the urge to build an “old computer” — install Win98, WinXP, or even Windows 7 on something. The Win9X and XP eras seemed like a hassle, so I decided to start with Win7.

The other reason I went with Win7 is that I spotted a batch of cheap new-old-stock laptops on eBay: the Dell Latitude 3340, the first generation, the Haswell one. Stock config is 4GB RAM and a 500GB HDD, and the key point is “brand new old stock” — compared with those ThinkPads that have been flipped who-knows-how-many times, that’s one advantage.

After some research I found this thing drives Windows 7 perfectly. Even the weird Intel integrated HD4600 can utterly demolish retro games from the Windows 7 era, so it’s a solid choice for revisiting stuff from around 2010. With that beautiful fantasy in mind, I bought this new-old-stock machine.

Impressions: Lenovo Qitian D10

Thu, 30 Jul 2026 17:36:00 +0800

I’ve been playing Galgames again lately, so I started looking for a new device. The reason I didn’t just keep using the Rog Ally X handheld is mainly that it’s inconvenient for slacking off — one look and it’s obviously a game console, way too conspicuous.

So I started shopping around. My budget is really limited, so I unexpectedly found that a batch of these has recently shown up on the secondhand market: the Lenovo Kaitian D10. Plenty are advertised as being in great condition, but I figure they were probably recycled from somewhere too.

Hands-on: Cube Palm Play Mini

Tue, 21 Jul 2026 06:45:00 +0800

Years back, Cube put out an 8-inch tablet called the Palm Play Mini. The whole point was that it was dirt cheap, and it took a SIM card. Only 4GB of RAM, weak CPU, but cheap. At a price that low, every other flaw stops mattering.

Then the product started listening to users. “Upgrade X and I’ll buy one,” they said, so it upgraded, and upgraded, and upgraded. Fewer people bought it, the price climbed, and the series felt like it was on its deathbed. Cube’s He Mengnan disappeared from view, and the thing lost its entire selling point.

So I’m scrolling Pinduoduo and see a tablet, brand new, 350-odd yuan shipped. It arrives and the box says “Suishengting” — sealed, never opened. But apart from the brand name, the specs and a few details told me everything: this is Cube’s 8-inch Palm Play Mini.

Review: Sharp Dtab D-41A

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0800

I think I bought this tablet around November 2024, from everyone’s favorite OK shop. The reason was simple: I wanted a tablet, and the only goal was watching videos. Ideally stock Android, able to install GMS, and not a Chinese brand…

The price at OK at the time was hard to refuse — a bit over 300, under 400, and the condition was decent, so I grabbed it.

A Few Days with Gal Touch

Thu, 16 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0800

I’ve been playing Galgame again lately, but I got fed up with my old device and went back to the Windows tablet camp. This time it’s a Lenovo 10-inch tablet with an N200 — performance and keyboard are nothing to write home about, but the screen is decent and the battery holds up. Personally I’d say it’s a bit better than the Surface Go 4. I’ll save the tablet talk for another time; today it’s about the software side.

Going back to a Windows tablet for Galgame, my old workflow felt a bit off. So I sorted out what I actually need when playing Galgame:

Fast Ctrl-to-skip, and easy access to the game’s backlog
Toggle between fullscreen and windowed
Easy one-tap screenshots
Show current power draw so I know how much battery time is left

With the requirements clear, I outsourced it — to AI, for free — and called the result Gal Touch.

Impressions: Saturn Controller

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 23:31:45 +0800

Back in the handheld emulator scene, a lot of people were obsessed with the idea of a “fighting handheld.” Mostly old-timers grinding KOF 97, pining for a handheld with good feel that could handle fighting games, or side-scrolling beat ’em ups and the like.

And of course the god of the bootleg handheld world, Zhou Ge, answered their prayers with the Anbernic RG-Arc, a machine that’s blatantly modeled on the Saturn, complete with the standard six-button layout and that familiar disc-style D-pad.

But once the thing came out, a bunch of old-timers weren’t happy, saying the design fell way short of the original Saturn, especially the D-pad feel, which was off by more than a little. They all insisted that only the original Saturn pad had that flavor, that perfect balance of firmness and give, that silky-smooth quarter-circle execution…

ROG Ally X: First Thoughts

Sun, 15 Feb 2026 23:23:53 +0800

Back in May last year, I noticed the ROG Ally X handheld was not only in stock on JD.com, but the price was back to normal, and it even qualified for the national subsidy. Basically, a machine that originally cost over 6000 RMB ended up discounted by a little over 1000, so I got it for under 5000. The reason JD.com gives you is the “national subsidy,” but in reality you don’t need to bind any qualification for this subsidy—you just need your delivery address to be in Shanghai. A victory for the “Shanghai lords,” you could say.

Naturally, I asked a fellow townsman bigshot in Shanghai to receive and buy it for me, and successfully got my hands on this handheld. A lot of people probably want to know: I’m a SteamDeck shill, so why did I buy ASUS’s handheld? How should you choose between it and the SteamDeck? I think I can explain it briefly with these points:

It’s a Windows handheld, so it can play Windows-exclusive games (Galgame)
It’s the only Windows handheld I know of that’s continuously optimizing power efficiency
It’s the best Windows handheld I know of when it comes to self-made power control software
At the time (2025), it had the largest battery capacity among Windows handhelds

Some might bring up the ROG Ally + big battery mod, which has basically the same performance, but the biggest difference with the ROG Ally X is its 24GB of native RAM. The change that big memory brings is that you can allocate a large amount of VRAM to games, especially those poorly optimized ones that all need lots of VRAM. And from my observation, the root cause of stuttering when the SteamDeck runs those badly optimized games is often insufficient memory, and the ROG Ally X can clearly improve that.

Impressions: Moondrop Nice Buds & Old Fashioned

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 16:46:00 +0800

I’ve never really had anything against Moondrop as a brand. I bought a pair of their ~300 RMB earphones a while back and they were fine — build quality and sound both held up. Their “anime marketing” is just a product-promotion路线, and it’s clearly worked. With the audio market getting more and more cutthroat, you have to differentiate to survive, even if that means leaning into a “trendy” style.

So you see all these streetwear brands charging a premium for design and brand recognition. Moondrop charging a premium by rubbing up against ACG culture seems fine to me too — and their low-end stuff doesn’t even carry much of a premium. Instead, while keeping basic quality intact, they give you some “fashion” elements. At least they’re the best-looking option in the budget tier, right? You wear earphones out in public, so beyond sound quality, treating them as an accessory is a perfectly good approach. As for the industry “veterans” who trash Moondrop’s high-end products — in this mystical audiophile domain, high-end products are basically an IQ-tax genre anyway. Once you’re in IQ-tax territory, buying a Moondrop at least looks better on you than a HiFiMan.

Recently Moondrop released two products I quite like: the Nice Buds and the Old Fashioned. Both are budget-focused with a retro flavor — one’s an earbud, one’s an over-ear.

Intel Arc B580

Mon, 09 Feb 2026 11:57:00 +0800

I used to have a desktop: E3 1230V2 + 16G DDR3 + GTX 1070. I forget when I put it together. Once I started using a laptop as my main machine I pretty much stopped upgrading it, and honestly the performance was enough for me — I could play through Ori 2, Doom Eternal, even Genshin without issues. Genshin 2.0 even ran at 4K with settings cranked, so I never bothered upgrading.

In the first half of last year someone gave me a bunch of spare parts they’d retired, and I pieced together an i7 12700 + 16G DDR5 + 512G NVMe setup. Then I grabbed a cheap motherboard off JD, swapped the whole thing into the case, and installed Fedora 43 as my main system.

Living with H3C MegaBook

Sun, 08 Feb 2026 15:48:00 +0800

Getting my hands on this machine was a bit of a fluke. I’d been messing around with running LLMs on Intel hardware, using the Xe Linux graphics driver, and every time I filed a bug with Intel I got the same sneering response: “The Xe driver is for LNL and BMG. We don’t care about your ARL integrated graphics.”

Truth is, plenty of Xe driver bugs have nothing to do with LNL or BMG—they’re just bugs. And cards from the Arc 140T / A770 era benefit hugely from the Xe driver too; the performance gains are real, and using them makes far more sense than clinging to TGL-era stuff. Getting unceremoniously dumped by Intel pissed me off, so I vented:

“Should I buy a Lunar Lake laptop just so I can complain about Intel?”

And then this Lunar Lake device showed up for testing. Special thanks to Cat Dad—here’s his blog, packed with good stuff, go check it out.

A Few Days with Ayn Loki Max

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 15:39:00 +0800

I already had two x86 handhelds on hand, but there was still a reason to buy a third. At first I just wanted something to play PS2 on. My old device was a Retroid Pocket 4, an Android handheld with a MediaTek Dimensity 1100 — just barely enough for PS2, but some games still drop frames. What’s worse is that PS2 emulator on Android: it hasn’t been updated in ages and looks like it’s on its way to being completely dead. So I started looking for a replacement.

Then I came across all those high-end Android retro handhelds — Aya Neo, Ayn Odin, Retroid Pocket 5/6. The budget for these things has climbed to around 2,500 RMB. Honestly, I really don’t like Android handhelds. For one, the OS itself is bloated for a gaming device. For another, Android has input latency when playing emulated games. A lot of people probably can’t feel it, but if you compare side by side it’s obvious.

So isn’t there some slightly smaller handheld that runs Linux and can handle PS2 emulation?

That’s when I spotted a batch of brand-new AYN Loki Max units on Xianyu. After thinking it over, I went for it.

Impressions: ThinkPad T14P Gen3

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 19:16:32 +0800

As a longtime ThinkPad user, I’d always stuck with the X1 Carbon series, and I’d always felt the Carbon deserved its flagship status. But as time went on and the nature of my work changed, my demands for performance kept climbing.

The thing is, the X1 Carbon is fundamentally a thin-and-light, so its performance ceiling is very limited — and, absurdly, the battery capacity isn’t great either. That eternal 57Wh (I hear they bumped it to 58Wh in 2026) means that aside from being light and thin, both battery life and performance are pretty mediocre. It just wasn’t meeting my needs anymore.

So after watching and waiting for nearly a year, I finally saw off the absurd MTL architecture and welcomed the TSMC-powered ARL-H. I picked up the ThinkPad T14p Gen 3 with integrated graphics — the so-called “China-exclusive pocket rocket” — in the U285H + 6400 high-frequency DDR5 64G memory configuration. I ran the numbers and buying the RAM myself would actually cost more than paying the upgrade premium, so I just went all the way.

I’ve been using the machine for nearly a year now. Feels like if I don’t say something soon, Panther Lake will be out. So let me just jot down some impressions here.

Everything that has a beginning has an end

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 00:33:00 +0800

If there’s one English line that stuck with me more than any other, it’s the Oracle’s from Matrix: “Everything that has a beginning has an end.”

I love that line. It states a truism in the coolest possible way—and honestly, a lot of philosophy is just truisms. The difference is that most real-world truisms go unnoticed until someone with a special aura says them in a mystifying tone, and then suddenly everyone treats them as gospel.

I bring it up because I still remember 2013, when I laid my cards on the table with a fujoshi I’d been pursuing and she shot me down for good. What I felt wasn’t so much heartbreak as relief. Looking back, she probably knew I was into her the whole time and just never gave me a clear no—kept me on the hook, had me tag along, paid for her meals. Not exactly malicious, but there was definitely some calculation in there. After that day I decided I needed something to do. I’d just bought a Windows tablet—a Dell V8p—and figured, well, I’ve never had a successful romance, so maybe I’ll find solace in games. I fired up Hatsuyuki Sakura (初雪桜), a newly translated release that had just dropped, and that kicked off my Galgame bulldozer mode. Windows, PSP, PSV, even iPad, and later Switch—my assault on visual novels has never stopped, and it hasn’t stopped now.

Kana-chan no Kanzen Kyuuketsu Manual (かなちゃんの完全吸血マニュアル) Review

Sat, 31 Jan 2026 05:06:00 +0800

I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned this on the blog more than once—the story of the very first eroge I ever played.

I was in sixth grade. I found it on a disc I’d bought called Recoil. It wasn’t even a compilation disc, just a single-game bootleg with a cover that didn’t list anything extra, yet somehow there were other games stored on it too.

I can’t remember the title. All I remembered were the characters for “complete bloodsucking.” You’d open it and first there’d be two women doing yuri stuff, then the heroine meets the protagonist, and she suddenly starts going down on his pixelated crotch… and then it cuts to “that kind” of scene.

Bear in mind I was in sixth grade. The most explicit thing I’d seen up to that point was probably some TV shopping channel ad for a bra. This was way too much for me. Right when I was completely losing control and about to keep watching, I heard footsteps approaching from somewhere in the house. I panicked and hard-rebooted the PC. When my mother came in and saw the blue disk-check screen, she thought it was weird, and I just awkwardly told her the computer had frozen.

Toumei no Kanojo to Shinjitsu no Watashi (透明的她与真实的我) Review

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 07:39:00 +0800

I’d been keeping an eye on this one for a while but never bought it, and the reason was that whole abstract Chinese crowdfunding mess from before. You open Modian’s front page and more than half of it is various “heart-stopping Chinese visual novel masterpieces” in vigorous development — who knows if you can actually finish yours, maybe you’ve already run off with the money?

Then I saw the game had launched, and it even went on discount for the winter sale, so I figured I’d buy it and give it a spin. It’s way longer than I expected, and after finishing it I have to sigh — as expected of a team that went to Japan to study, it’s better than traditional Chinese galgames in basically every respect, and in a lot of places it’s genuinely excellent. At the very least it does things “right.” I’ll break this down into a few points, and since spoiling this game would kill half the fun, I’ll try to keep things spoiler-free:

Impressions: Tianbei RX 7600 XT eGPU Dock

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 11:50:00 +0800

Honestly, I’m not sure why I bought this thing. Maybe because I saw it on sale during Double 12. I did the math, and building an eGPU dock myself would have cost more than this. I’d also been wanting to play games again, and I wanted something that worked with my Linux laptop and my Windows handheld, with some room to spare. After looking around, this seemed to fit, so I bought it.

Anyway, I bought it. I mainly want to talk about my experience using it, because I think a lot of people are curious and there’s very little online about how this thing works under Linux. So I’ll share my impressions and give Linux users thinking about an eGPU dock some reference.

Kousai Toshi (虹彩都市) Review

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 23:02:00 +0800

Ever since Key got acquired by Tencent, their direction changed completely—they shifted to a weird… but also very modern approach.

On one hand they ride the heat of old IPs to squeeze out the remaining value; on the other they push a series of small, quick, cheap titles, using fast iteration to boost overall sales. Take the new “Kinetic Novel” line, for example: no-choice visual novels focused on story and presentation for a more three-dimensional experience.

Honestly, you can see the logic. Games—visual novels especially—are a one-time development cost with essentially zero cost to copy afterward. As long as you have enough titles and keep throwing sales, you’ll move some units, and you can even count on passive income later. For a traditional galgame company, that’s not a bad thing. So from last year to now we’ve seen Key pump out new title after new title, and this one is Rainbow City.

Zhai Nan De Ren Jian Mao Xian (宅男的人间冒险) Review

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 16:08:00 +0800

I have to trot out the old line again, the one I’ve said who knows how many times: I have no idea when I bought this game. Probably some sale. Anyway, I recently noticed it was already sitting in my library, so I figured I’d give it a spin.

Saying this every time makes me feel like I’m cosplaying QZXX, but it really is the truth. I probably just saw an interesting title and screenshots that looked decent enough, and bought it.

That game is Otaku’s Adventure (otaku的人间冒险).

Lian'ai Zhujiaofan (恋爱猪脚饭) Review

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 23:41:25 +0800

I found out about Huang Xia because he was bumming around in Zhangzhuang, Zhengzhou — and our work unit was about to move there too. So I stumbled onto him by accident.

Then COVID hit, our unit’s plan fell through, and Huang Xia started walking across the country.

Some people call Huang Xia an idiot, a lazy bum, a piece of shit. I can’t confirm any of that. What I can confirm is that he’s not a dumb one. His videos are formulaic as hell, but there’s this weird absurdist artistry to them — the camera work, the content, the daily situation reports, all of it has a real sense of image. Huang Xia knows exactly what the audience wants, he films the stuff everyone loves to watch, and then when people start flaming him he plays the victim. And it’s not just him — all his “good homies” do the same. Zhang Gongmao and that whole crowd, same deal.

Lots of people say today’s youth are all about deconstruction, deconstruction. Nah. Huang Xia is the real postmodernist artist.

Especially since everyone used to dunk on Huang Xia for being a loser every single day — until Liangzi of the Big Stomach Bag fame burst onto the scene, and suddenly everyone thought Huang Xia was actually not so bad.

Nandome ka no Hajimemashite (何度目かのはじめまして) Review

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 01:09:00 +0800

Purple Software out of nowhere dropped this thing called How Many Times Have We Met (何度目かのはじめまして). Turns out it’s not their usual dumbass fantasy schtick — the title alone screams time travel: “the umpteenth first meeting.”

And I, also out of nowhere, ended up playing it. The plot is simple if you want it to be, complicated if you don’t.

Basically, the protagonist is a corporate drone with zero hope in life, shuffling around like a walking corpse. By sheer coincidence he runs into this black cat-looking thing. The cat talks, says it wants to form a contract with him and grant his wish. He naturally says his life is garbage right now, and the cat offers to send him back to the happiest time of his life… high school. About seven days’ worth.

LimeLight Lemonade Jam (ライムライト・レモネードジャム) Review

Tue, 02 Dec 2025 17:28:00 +0800

Two years on, after a run of teasers early in the year, Japan’s galgame powerhouse Yuzusoft has finally put out its full-price R18 proper new release for the year: LimeLight Lemonade Jam (the Chinese title roughly reads as “Spotlight and Lemonade Performance,” since “Jam” can mean fruit jam or a band’s set). And to everyone’s mild surprise, it’s a girl-band story.

From announcement to launch the whole thing ran like classic Yuzusoft: no long gap in between, and they put out a free online demo download well ahead of time — the kind most of today’s so-called “super blockbusters” won’t bother with. Credit where it’s due: no offline demo event, no flying out KOLs on the company dime to say nice things in advance. Just traditional marketing, step by step, and the release didn’t slip. You can smell the mature project management.

Lian Ai Qi Tan: Bu Cun Zai De Hui Yi (恋爱绮谭~不存在的回忆~) Review

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 11:24:00 +0800

Straight to the point: me buying this game, and even playing it, has honestly not that much to do with the game itself.

First off, I played the previous entries. To be blunt, only the first one, Memories That Don’t Exist (不存在的夏天), is something I actually understood. The storytelling is weird as hell, full of deliberately contrived “trick narration” and prose soaked in anime-isms — enough that even a veteran otaku like me has to go “damn, the flavor is strong.” But the game also, unusually, has a genuinely beautiful passage in the back half that I still remember to this day, so I walked away thinking it was pretty good.

Then the second game came along and the story started getting strange. Probably because the first one got so much praise, the writer got a bit full of himself and decided the “dregs” from part one were actually correct, so he doubled down. The result is something that looks deeply odd to me: the core is packed with Chinese elements, but the prose isn’t written the way Chinese people actually write, so reading it feels off — like a West Coast gangsta rap track performed entirely on traditional Chinese instruments, with heroes pulling pistols out of their crotches to ganggang each other while dealing mystery pharmaceuticals on the side.